Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Leading with Cultural Competence - What is Culture and Why Does it Matter?

We recently held the Leading with Cultural Competence
workshop as part of the 2016 Leadership Series.
This day-long session allowed participants to explore their
understanding of cultural competence and how to be more effective leaders. Information for today’s post has been adapted
from materials prepared for the session by Extension Educators Catherine
Rasmussen and Toby Spanier.

When we
are asked to define our culture many of us may immediately name a country we or
our ancestors immigrated from. We don’t
always give credit to the other pieces that create our culture – our socioeconomic
status, gender, educational history, or geographic location to name a few. Each aspect of our lives informs our culture
as well as the culture of the places we live, work, play, and lead. Simply
stated, culture is made up of shared basic assumptions that are learned over
time and considered to be valid. These
valid assumptions are then taught as the “norm” to others around us and impact
the behaviors and actions of the group.
This process is what creates bonds between families, groups, co-workers,
and organizations. Understanding all of these different pieces
does not only contribute to our better understanding of culture but also leads
us on a journey towards understanding the concepts of cultural competence.

Cultural competence is the understanding the culture is
deep, pervasive, complex, patterned, and morally neutral. A developed understanding of cultural
competence allows us to see how culture has formed our own beliefs, values, and
patterns of behavior. As we understand
ourselves better it makes us more capable of accurately understanding and
adapting behavior to cultural differences and commonalities that are around us. Cultural competence is something that people can work to improve and learn through their lifetime.

We cannot expect to develop a sound understanding of our own
culture or to be cultural competent overnight.
Culture and cultural competence are topics that we need to take a moment
to understand and explore. To learn more
about the cultural and demographic shifts seen within Minnesota take a minute
to read the Brookings Essay by Jennifer Bradley. It provides interesting information on how
Minnesota is becoming more diverse and takes a close look at changes seen
within Minneapolis-St. Paul. University of
Minnesota Extension’s own Ben Winchester has also done extensive research into
how the population is shifting with rural Minnesota. His analysis of 2010 Census data published in the Rural Minnesota Journal provides an interesting
look into how the population is shifting within Minnesota and what changes are
noted within rural communities. Both
reports share a common theme – our state is becoming more diverse. This fact makes it important that we further explore issues of diversity and learn how our culture impacts our
ability to work with people from a different culture.